The fit survive Immuvit "No Excuses" run

Joy Beryl Laroa, a nurse employed by the Armed Forces of the Philippine's medical services, illustrated on Saturday that in a race of endurance, the fittest will most likely succeed. The 25-year-old Laroa completed the final run of the meta-fit course of the Immuvit "No Excuses" at the Quezon City Memorial Circle in just 5:55 minutes to relegate Chris Everingham (5:57) of the widely-known Rugby team Philippine Volcanoes to second spot and long-distance runner Nonoy Floresca (6:27) to third place. "He [Everingham] was ahead of me but I was able to overtake him by finishing ahead of him in the burpee box jump, which was the last exercise in the course," said Laroa, who is originally from Davao City. "I was able to finish ahead of him because I am used to doing 55 push-ups during our training in the AFP. Here we did 20 repetitions." The burpee box jump is a combination of push-ups and jumping, which was considered one of the hardest challenges in the endurance race conceptualized and designed by Immuvit brand ambassador Jim Saret, who once served the Smart Gilas national team as its fitness mentor. Competitors must repeat the exercise 20 times. Besides the burbee box jump, participants must finish the Rip 60 Challenge, tire flips, tire pulls, walking lungees and the wiper pushups challenges, which put a dent in a lot of competitors, who were not fit enough to handle upper body exercises. "The result showed that it is not the tallest or the fastest who can win in this kind of competition. Almost always it is the fittest because in this kind of competition one need not only the lower body strength but the upper body as well," Saret explained. Laroa, who stands about 5-foot-6, likewise won over the 6-foot Everingham in the eliminations as they lead the top 10 finalists with a time of 6:43 and 7:20 minutes, respectively. Floresca, on the other hand, was fifth in the eliminations with a clocking of 7:56 minutes. In the women's division, Irene Rafil, a Certified Platinum Personal Trainer at Fitness First, completed the course 5:02 minutes, while finishing second and third were veteran runner Jennifer Cabbab (5:18 minutes) and ultra-marathon runner Jenny Bave Dela Cruz (5:49). Saret explained that the women's time were better than the men's because they were more fit. "The women are better prepared for this than the men's if we will consider their performance based on their clockings." Meantime, Jeff Arce topped the men's beginner division with a time of 8:08 while Cecille Yuson, running with an injured right knee, shared the limelight with her 3:40 clocking. Yuson of the Philippine Navy was the winner of the trail run and first leg of this series held inside the La Mesa Nature Reserve Forest in Fairview. "I will still compete in the third leg in Nuvali although I am not sure if I can still win because of my injury," said Yuson, after bagging her second victory in the three-leg series which will end next Saturday with the third leg called "No Turning Back." Team RFC (36:12 minutes), composed of athletes from the University of Santo Tomas, won the all-male competition while Team USB bagged the mixed team race (54:33). "This race is a tune-up actually for the Nuvali trail run, which we expect to be more challenging compared to the one held inside the La Mesa  Park. There will be more challenges in the 8k and 16k runs," said Saret referring to the last leg which will be held next Saturday, October 6. - AMD, GMA News